Will it be their last World Cup?

Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan)
He has rarely been out of the headlines - both for his performances on the field and the controversies off it. All the same there has been little doubt that Shoaib Akhtar has been one of the most colourful cricketing personalities for about 12 years.

For him bowling fast has been a passion and in fact he made it clear that to bowl at 100 miles an hour was an obsession. He achieved that objective during the 2003 World Cup sending down a delivery to Nick Knight timed at 100.2 mph. His long career has seen the kinds of ups and downs that few cricketers have been through but at his best Akhtar has been a sight for the cricketing gods.

Unfortunately, he has squandered many opportunities to add substantially to his impressive tally of wickets in all formats of the game and in the final analysis it must be said that Akhtar will remain a supreme talent who allowed himself to go astray.

It is to be hoped that in the World Cup he will make one last effort to summon up the Akhtar of old for he will be in his 40th year when the next such event rolls around and it is a fair bet that he will not be around.